So far the response to this story has been amazing. Thanks people! And no, there are still no plans to make Harry and Rose a romantic couple.

A Darkened World

An Awkward Meeting

-Dream Sequence-

Nine year old Rose Weasley pushed open the backdoor to her house and went inside. She had been playing with her cousins Roxanne and Dominique, but now it was lunchtime and she had hurried home to find out if her mother would cook her some spaghetti and meatballs. She dashed down the hallway and came into the kitchen of her family's house. There she was greeted with a surprise, and not the good kind!

Her mother was sitting in a chair at the table with her face buried in her hands. And she was crying.

Like most children the world over, Rose hated seeing her parents upset. However whereas her little brother Hugo might have left their mother alone, Rose hurried over to her, full of concern.

"Mummy, why are you crying?"

Her mother looked up suddenly, clearly surprised "Oh, Rosie. I didn't hear you come in."

Rose noticed that her mother's eyes were a little red, and her cheeks were tear-stained. She had been crying for a while.

"What's wrong Mummy?" Rose asked.

"Oh, nothing Rose. It's nothing." as she said this, she was gathering up some things that were scattered over the table top.

One of the items fall from the table, and Rose was quick to pick it up and examine it.

It was a photograph, showing three people. Despite her young age at the time it was taken, it was blindingly clear that one of the three was her mother, with her chocolate-coloured eyes and bushy brown hair. One of the others was obviously her father, with his red hair, large nose, freckles and gangly frame. However she had no idea who the third person was; bespectacled with a kind smile on his face, a mop of unruly black hair and the most brilliant green eyes.

"Who's that mummy?" Rose asked, pointing to the third person in the photograph.

Her mother paused, appearing to be quite torn as her eyes looked first at the photograph, then to her daughter and back again.

Finally she gave a sigh and sat back in her chair before saying "Well, I suppose that it's only right that you should know…"

She looked back at Rose, who was watching her expectantly.

"Alight. The boy in that picture is Harry Potter."

Rose's eyes widened with surprise at that "Harry Potter?" She knew that name somewhere. She'd heard her Grandma Molly and Aunt Ginny discussing the name several times. And hadn't she overheard her parents arguing over someone named Harry?

"Who is he?" Rose asked.

"Harry is… was" her mother corrected herself "my best friend. He was one of the nicest people that you could ever hope to meet. He was kind, brave and loyal. And he always went out of his way to help people who needed it, and to do what is right, rather than what is easy."

"And he's your best friend?" asked Rose.

Following a nod from her mother, Rose continued "How come I've never met him? Did he die in the war?"

"I don't know. I don't know what happened to him."

"How come?"

"Your dad and Harry had a big fight one day. They fell out and your father left. I went with him." she admitted before adding bitterly "Biggest mistake of my life."

"Did you try and find him?" asked Rose.

"I did. He always wanted to go to the little village where his parents were buried. For three whole months I would spend eight hours each day there, waiting for him to turn up, and then it would be someone else's turn to keep watch for him. He never came there, and there was nothing else we could do to try and find him. Then we were forced to flee the country."

"So you never saw him again?"

"No." and with that her mother started crying again.

Rose hopped up onto the seat next to her mother and wrapped her arms around her, hoping to provide comfort. All the while, her nine-year old mind was reeling at the idea that her mother and her best friend had parted on such horrible terms, and never saw each other again. And her mother thought that leaving Harry to be with her father was a massive mistake. How could best friends fall apart like that?

-End Dream Sequence-

Rose stirred slightly as consciousness returned to her. Slowly she opened her eyes to take in her situation. She was lying on her back, and a good ten feet above her was a sheet of beige coloured canvass that seemed to be acting as a roof. Wondering where she was, she sat up, and a damp cloth fell off her forehead. She paid it little mind.

She was in a bed, wrapped in blankets, in what seemed to be a large tent, which confused her. The last thing she could remember was curing up between the thick roots of a large oak tree. She felt a twinge of pain in her shoulder where the werewolf had hurt her, and she brought a hand up to rub it. She was surprised to find that there was a bandage attached there.

She threw back the blankets to find that she was still fully clothed. She got out of the bed and stood up to look around. The tent was quite large, so large that she quickly came to the conclusion that it must be a magical one.

There didn't appear to be anyone else within the tent.

To one side of the tent, there was a small wooden table cluttered with what at first appeared to be a pile of junk. However when she moved closer to get a better look, she discovered that the clutter consisted of many things, including various books, glass phials (some of which were broken), quills, pieces of parchment and a wide variety of clothes.

Rose took one of the books and read the title on the spine. It read "The Tales of Beadle the Bard."

She knew the title of the book well. It was a collection of short stories like "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot," "The Fountain of Fair Fortune" and "Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump." All of these were aimed at wizarding children. Such a book seemed rather insignificant, and so she set it aside in favour of another.

It was a book with a cover made from carved mahogany, an unusual thing, even for a wizard's book.

She opened it with caution. She found herself looking at a man and a woman, perhaps the same age as herself, or perhaps a year or two younger. The woman had long flowing red hair and brilliant green eyes, but it was the man that caught her attention with his mop of jet black hair and the pair of glasses sitting so casually on the bridge of his nose… he almost looked like… no. It couldn't be.

She flipped through a few more pages, seeing the couple with friends, or just together, them and their friends on their wedding day, the couple with a baby, and then…

Rose dropped the book back onto the table in surprise. She brought a trembling hand to her mouth and tried to calm herself before looking at the photograph again.

It was exactly the same as the one she had found her mother crying over eleven years ago. There on the left was her mother, no older than twelve, buck-toothed and bushy haired. And on the right was her father, gangly, freckled and long nosed. And there in the middle was…

Behind her the entrance to the tent opened. Rose spun around in surprise, and saw a man entering the tent. It was a man she had never met, but knew all too well. Despite his shoulder length hair that was now dirty, matted and flecked with grey, and despite the messy tangle of a beard that hid most of his neck from view, there was no mistaking those green eyes behind those glasses. And there was no mistaking that scar which marred his forehead.

He smiled at her, but Rose could see that it was a forced one "Ah, you're awake at last, then."

"Sorry?" Rose asked, her voice taking on an unexpected squeaky quality.

"I found you under a tree." he replied "You were really out of it, so I brought you back here. Patched you up a bit. You've been asleep for three days."

"I have?"

"Yeah. I was starting to wonder if you'd ever wake up. Oh, I'm Harry by the way."

"I know." replied Rose, before wincing at her slip up.

He gave her a curious look "How do you know?" suddenly he had a wand in his hand, which he aimed at her "Are you one of them?"

"One of what?"

"A Death Eater. I checked your arm but-"

"No. I'm no Death Eater. I know you because-" she tried to think of a believable cover story, but decided to bite the bullet "I know you because I grew up hearing stories about you. I'm Rose Weasley. My father is Ron Weasley and my mother is Hermione Granger."

An expression of pain filled Harry's face at the mention of her parents' names. Silence reigned for a few long moments, causing Rose to wish that she hadn't mentioned her mum and dad by name. Finally Harry asked "So they're alive then?"

Rose replied with a nod before saying "They're living in Australia."

"So the cowards fled."

"They didn't have much choice-"

"Traitors usually don't."

Rose knew that her parents had done a terrible thing in abandoning Harry, but she wasn't about to let him get away with calling them traitors. It wasn't as if they'd joined Voldemort or anything.

"It was either that or die. You know You-Know-Who took Hogwarts, don't you?"

"I am well aware that he took Hogwarts." replied Harry coldly "I am well aware that he killed everyone who refused to bow to him, student or adult. And I am well aware that from there he carried on throughout the British Isles and far out into the continent."

"Well then…" began Rose, but any argument seemed to die in her throat.

"What are you doing in this country, anyway?" asked Harry "Why aren't you with your parents, where it's safe?"

Glad of a change in topic, Rose latched onto it and told Harry about the taskforce that she was a part of. She told him of the mission that she had taken part in, and how it had all gone so very wrong.

"Wow." muttered Harry "And I thought I was prone to acting stupidly noble. Well, what are you still doing here? Surely you've got a portkey back home?"

Rose shook her head "The werewolf took the bag of portkeys that I had."

Harry frowned and asked "And you didn't have a backup portkey in case of an emergency?"

When Rose shook her head in the negative, Harry rolled his eyes and muttered to himself "Of course. Whoever heard of a wizard with a contingency plan?" Then to her he said "Well, I suppose you'd better make yourself comfortable here. I think I've got enough food for the both of us tonight, but we'll have to go hunting and gathering in the morning."

This caught Rose by surprise "You want me to stay?" she asked.

Harry shrugged "Just a recommendation. You go out there" he gestured outside "and you'll be captured and tortured to death for information within a week."

And with that he turned his back on her and made his way over to an area of the tent that clearly had been designated as a kitchen area.

Rose stood there, watching him with a surprised look on her face. A few moments before she had been sure he was about to throw her out for mentioning her parents, and now he was offering her a place to stay and a meal? It didn't make sense…

"Oh yes it does." said a voice in the back of her mind. And she knew that the voice was correct. This was what her mother liked to call "Harry's saving people thing." It seemed that despite the years of hurt that it had caused him, Harry wasn't about to hold her parents' abandonment of him against their daughter, even though he really should.

Thank Merlin for small mercies!

She was also quick to discover that she couldn't exactly hurt him, even if she was an enemy of his. She had lost her wand in the fight, and now from a quick search of her pockets it seemed that she had misplaced her knife.

She wondered if Harry had taken it from her, just in case.

Deciding to ask about that later, Rose made her way over to the kitchen. After all, it would be very rude of her to eat Harry's food without first helping to prepare it.

There was already some meat roasting slowly as it turned on a spit above a flame.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Pigeon." replied Harry.

Rose wrinkled her nose in disgust at the idea of eating pigeon.

Seeing her expression Harry said "Don't worry. It's not that bad. It tastes a bit like chicken, but a bit stronger, and sometimes a tad nutty or berry-like"

Rose decided to just reserve judgement until after she tried a bit.

Later…

Harry stepped outside the tent to get some fresh air, and to think things over. He had to admit that now that he thought about it, Rose did have more than a passing resemblance to Hermione, and he wondered why he hadn't realised it earlier. Probably because it was so unlikely that the one person to find him after so long would just happen to be Hermione's daughter. Still, it was a shock to learn just who her parents were, and that naturally made him doubt her trustworthiness. And yet he was letting her stay. He couldn't really come up with a reason why, but if he were to be truly honest with himself (which he wasn't) he would have admitted that no small part of his decision to let her stay was loneliness.

He had little reference for time anymore, but from Rose's age (for she was at the very least eighteen) Harry could surmise that he had been alone for around twenty years.

Merlin, was that how long it had been? That was a long time to have been alone, hiding away from the world, nursing his pain.

Yes, at least on a subconscious level Harry's willingness to let Rose stay was an attempt to ease his loneliness. It would certainly make a difference to have someone else around. Someone to talk to.

Not that he completely trusted her yet. Her knife was stowed in a small drawer by his bed that he kept locked, and he wouldn't be giving it back to her just yet.

Of course, not everything she brought with her was welcome. She had mentioned the Battle of Hogwarts as if it was just some fact that she learned out of one of her textbooks at school. Harry, on the other hand, did his level best to quash the memories of that battle. He wasn't there, but Voldemort made sure that he saw everything.

Trying to push those memories from his mind, Harry tilted his head back and looked skyward.

A cloud drifted aside to reveal a crescent moon. The moon immediately reminded him of someone, and a memory of terrible screaming surfaced in Harry's mind. Violently pushing that memory away, Harry turned and went back inside. He definitely did not want to recall that memory.

Inside the tent, he looked over towards Rose, who, after dinner, had decided to get some sleep (her body was still coming around from her exhaustion.) She had unknowingly gotten into the bed that her mother used to occupy.

In the end she had decided that the pigeon made a passable meal. Too bad they had had nothing to go with it.

Wondering what the future would hold now that he had a companion, Harry made his way over to his own bed. Hopefully the presence of someone else would make the night time a bit more tolerable.

A/N: There you go. Harry's back, Rose has met him and they've told each other enough for them to call a truce. But please remember when reviewing that they are far from being the best of pals. That will need to grow. Harry's not turning her away because of his loneliness and the fact that, despite everything, he's not a complete bastard that would sent her out to be killed. I know that this chapter doesn't go into much detail about things, especially the past, but I think Harry and Rose need to grow a bit more comfortable around each other before the swapping of stories can take place. Don't worry though, there is more backstory coming in the next chapter, and we get a hint of just how much progress Harry has made. In fact the next few chapters are going to be about Harry and Rose getting to know one another, learning about past events and working towards their next move. Oh, and there is a bit more reasoning behind Ron and Hermione abandoning Britain for Australia, beyond the standard "Voldemort was taking over" thing. I did originally plan to put it in here, but it seemed a bit odd to bring that bit of information up at this point.

Also, good news! For a change I have actually managed to properly plan this story, at least as far as chapter 8. I have no idea how long it will be, but I think that fifteen chapters is a fair estimate.